SUPER BALL: Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (above) couldn't pull in this pass during practice earlier this week, but the rookie is confident enough his team can beat the Chargers tomorrow, he has a football, marked "Super Bowl XLIV," in his locker at the practice facility.

“Play like a Jet.”

That’s coach Rex Ryan’s theme for his team, and tomorrow in San Diego the Jets again have the opportunity to make those powerful words ring true.

The Jets have never been more ready to fly. They left New Jersey yesterday fired up to take on the Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium, knowing that this is what it means to play like a Jet.

“It means playing physical, fast, intelligent, a high football IQ, relentless, all those good things,” linebacker Bart Scott said. “Before I was playing like a Jet, I was playing like a Raven. It’s something that we brought over.”

Ryan, the former Ravens defensive coordinator, has the Jets right where he wants them in his first season as head coach after their wild-card win last week over Cincinnati. The Chargers present much more of a challenge. If the Jets are to shock the NFL world, they are going to have to play physical, fast and intelligent.

“You’re a Jet All The Way.”

Those words from the musical “West Side Story” are printed in big bold letters on a prominent wall at the Jets complex, another daily dose of inspiration. Ryan has been quick to talk about the Jets making it to the Super Bowl. The players have followed suit and there was another sign of that yesterday in the locker room.

In Mark Sanchez’s locker was a yellow Nerf football. Written on it with a Sharpie was the Jets’ ultimate destination: “Super Bowl XLIV.” Sanchez’s garment bag hung to the left. This trip could take the Jets one step closer to their goal or it could put an end to their fun run.

Sanchez is available to the media only on game day and Wednesdays, but Scott made it clear how the Jets are looking to turn Qualcomm into their San Diego Zoo.

Scott said a victory is “an opportunity to get respect. It’s been one tradition here, or one belief. In the NFL a tiger can change its stripes.”

A win would put the Jets in the AFC Championship game and give them a notch on their belt over that other team that has always owned this area, the Giants, but it also would be much more than that.

This is all about the J-E-T-S.

“Rex wants everyone to play in a physical manner,” kicker Jay Feely said, “so that when we get done playing a team, they remember they played us because of the punishment they took.”

The last time the Jets were in the playoffs, 2006, they were smacked around by the Patriots in a 37-16 wild-card loss. Wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery said he never got the sense from that season’s team that “we were really sure where we were headed.”

That’s a most revealing comment. It also shows there is much more of a plan with this team. These Jets have it together in a different way. There is one central message: Play like a Jet.

“This team is definitely a confident team,” Cotchery said. “We feel like we have the talent in this room to be able to make a run. I definitely feel that confidence from everyone in here. We’re really having a lot of fun out here on the field each week so we’re just trying to keep it going.

“There’s no doubt at all in this locker room.”

A win tomorrow and the Jets really will have changed their stripes. It will take a lot to beat the Chargers at home. It will take playing like a Jet.

“You’re playing hard, you’re playing fast, and you’re playing physical and in all of that, you’re playing smart as well,” Cotchery said. “When we’ve done all of those things, we’ve won games this year. That’s what we’ve been focusing on, the way we’ve been winning over this past month or so. We’re just trying to keep that same formula. Just go out there and play like Jets.”